Hyperion's "Classic" Piano Concerto Series

[Lance]

Hyperion 68126, 71:33, DDD

Hyperion's Romantic Piano Concerto series has been a wonderful series presenting many piano concertos we might not otherwise ever have a chance to hear. They have embarked on yet another series featuring Classical piano concertos. The one above is noted to be the third release in the series, but oddly, unlike the Romantic series, this one is not numbered as "3".

Here, we have two piano concertos by Mozart's son, Franz Xaver Mozart, his Opp. 14 and 25, and Muzio Clementi's Piano Concerto in C Major with pianist/conductor Howard Shelley with the St. Gallen Symphony Orchestra, recorded in Switzerland in 2015. Not much needs to be said about Shelley; he's an incredibly gifted musician both as pianist and conductor and has certainly proven himself with a huge discography on a wide variety of labels, but these days, mostly o Hyperion. While the works are not world premieres, Hyperion's quality of sound and booklet presentation are, as usual, first class.

[Ted Quanrud]

A little disappointing so far. Three releases, all with the same soloist, all on modern instruments. Much I admire Howard Shelley, I hope Hyperion will look for new talent, especially younger artists who have grown up with period instruments. The cover artwork could also be improved. Hyperion has a great reputation for their covers, and this series' bland standard fronts doesn't do the music or the label justice.

Nevertheless, I am largely satisfied with the three issued thus far, and intend to continue with the series.

[John F]

Hyperion's repertoire-expanding projects are admirable, and so were many of their recordings in the '90s. When Matthias Bamert parted company with the London Mozart Players, and both with Hyperion, I think they lost something important. For one thing, the repertoire since then hasn't been quite new; many of the Romantic piano concertos had already appeared in other recordings going back to 1970s LPs, and I've had other recordings of Mozart Jr. in E flat and Clementi for years. Has the bottom of the barrell been scraped and there's no more undiscovered music worth playing? Or is it just that Howard Shelley and the Hyperion people haven't been searching hard enough? I suspect the latter.

Bamert & Co. came up with some remarkable discoveries in the series devoted to Mozart's (near-) contemporaries. There's a record of two symphonies by Franz Krommer, aka Frantisek Kramar, which are well worth hearing. Schubert complained that his school orchestra kept playing Krommer's symphonies, which were then new, instead of Haydn's. Krommer was certainly no Haydn; his invention is uneven. But if Schubert's own symphonies sound like any other composer's, it's not Haydn's but Krommer's, as in the first movement of the 4th symphony. And Bamert and his orchestra play them to the hilt. Both symphonies, #2 in D and #4 in C minor, are on this one track.

[LSAmadeus]

I never realised Mozart had a son that survived to adulthood!

[barney]

A little disappointing so far. Three releases, all with the same soloist, all on modern instruments. Much I admire Howard Shelley, I hope Hyperion will look for new talent, especially younger artists who have grown up with period instruments. The cover artwork could also be improved. Hyperion has a great reputation for their covers, and this series' bland standard fronts doesn't do the music or the label justice.

Nevertheless, I am largely satisfied with the three issued thus far, and intend to continue with the series.

I have to agree re the cover. I have many of the Romantic Piano Concerto series, but it runs to dozens and dozens, and I'm not sure I'll embark on this series. Ted and Lance, what are the Mozart fils concertos like? Worth hearing? I have one work by him, a Diabelli variations entry on the marvellous double CD set by Demus.

[Lance]

Hi Ted ... well as a "piano guy" I like the use of a piano (which largely came as we know it today in the mid-1850s), so it's not that far out of balance. As for Shelley, he may, himself be discovering these scores and has dibs on making the recordings, though of this I am uncertain. He is an honest, highly-skilled musician and pianist and probably a good choice, though different artists make a series more interesting. Perhaps some of Hyperion's other pianists, Jonathan Plowright, Stephen Hough, Martin Roscoe, Leslie Howard, Hamish Milne, Steven Osborne, even Marc André Hamlin, among many others will get involved. And I admit, the packaging on the Classical Concerto Series is rather bland. Notes are good, however, and usually excellent recorded quality..

A little disappointing so far. Three releases, all with the same soloist, all on modern instruments. Much I admire Howard Shelley, I hope Hyperion will look for new talent, especially younger artists who have grown up with period instruments. The cover artwork could also be improved. Hyperion has a great reputation for their covers, and this series' bland standard fronts doesn't do the music or the label justice.

Nevertheless, I am largely satisfied with the three issued thus far, and intend to continue with the series.

[Ted Quanrud]

I have many of the Romantic Piano Concerto series, but it runs to dozens and dozens, and I'm not sure I'll embark on this series. Ted and Lance, what are the Mozart fils concertos like? Worth hearing? I have one work by him, a Diabelli variations entry on the marvellous double CD set by Demus.

Hi Barney -- You'll never confuse F.X. Mozart's two concerti with his father's last 15 or so, but they are eminently listenable. They make one wonder if the elder Mozart had lived, would his influence have helped his son achieve a greater career.

[John F]

I never realised Mozart had a son that survived to adulthood!

Actually there were two. Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart, born in the year of Mozart's death, was something of a piano prodigy, and his mother renamed him Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart II as a career move - name recognition counted even then. His older brother, Karl Thomas Mozart, was also a pianist but didn't make a career of it; instead he became a bureaucrat (essentially an accountant) in the Austrian government. Apparently he lived comfortably and, long-lived like his mother, died at 74.

[Lance]

Speaking of the Mozart family after his death, I wonder how/if revenues came to the family from publications or performances of Mozart's music, i.e., could they have enjoyed the benefits of Mozart's genius even long after his death? How did royalties work at that time? Today, of course, it is all well controlled. Back then ... ?

I never realised Mozart had a son that survived to adulthood!

Actually there were two. Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart, born in the year of Mozart's death, was something of a piano prodigy, and his mother renamed him Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart II as a career move - name recognition counted even then. His older brother, Karl Thomas Mozart, was also a pianist but didn't make a career of it; instead he became a bureaucrat (essentially an accountant) in the Austrian government. Apparently he lived comfortably and, long-lived like his mother, died at 74.

[John F]

Constanze Mozart inherited the autographs of many of Mozart's works, and eight years after his death, having put them in order, she sold 270 of them to the German publisher Johann Anton André. I don't know how much he paid for them, but Constanze was a shrewd businesswoman and I'm sure she drove a hard bargain. She also collected the balance of Mozart's generous commission for the Requiem, after getting it completed by other hands, and successfully petitioned the emperor for a pension. So eventually she was comfortably well off, possibly even wealthy.

But she didn't have to support herself for long; starting in 1798 she lived with the Danish diplomat Klaus Nikolaus von Nissen, whom she married in 1809. Grove's Dictionary says he was initially her tenant, which means she had managed to acquire a residential property in Vienna large and presentable enough to accommodate her and her children and to rent out rooms to an important international diplomat. This was even before selling the Mozart Nachlass.

Speaking of her children, Constanze exploited "Wolfgang Jr." as a prodigy, the way her father-in-law had exploited her husband. Another source of income. Both surviving sons supported themselves when they came of age and needed no help from her.

[barney]

I have many of the Romantic Piano Concerto series, but it runs to dozens and dozens, and I'm not sure I'll embark on this series. Ted and Lance, what are the Mozart fils concertos like? Worth hearing? I have one work by him, a Diabelli variations entry on the marvellous double CD set by Demus.

Hi Barney -- You'll never confuse F.X. Mozart's two concerti with his father's last 15 or so, but they are eminently listenable. They make one wonder if the elder Mozart had lived, would his influence have helped his son achieve a greater career.

Thanks Ted. As I said, I don't think I will collect this set - Hyperion is one of the most expensive labels in Australia - but I might change my mind. And I'll keep an eye out for this one.